Not much in the way of ghosts and goblins out there today, but it was fun hearing the rustling of the leaves as we headed out on the path.  It was a bit foggy, but the same came out and again we enjoyed our start of the week in the Refuge. 

Talk about luck.....you couldn't have ordered a better weather for a walk.  Not only did we meet new walkers, but we ran into  Laurel Ingels, Friar Tuck, the Great Pumpkin, witches,  a warewolf and even a Great Dane dressed as a chihuahua.  We were able to share our meals with friends and see places that we never new existed.  And of course there are the new Merrywalker bumps:  Mary's Bookstore (the checkpoint) was a great stop and the kitchen shop right next door; breakfast at the Blue Whale, lunch at Green Salmon Coffee Shop and dinner at the Drift Inn.  Places to see that were on the way to the walk were the Gingerbread Village and on the way home, Cape Foul Weather and the Russell Art Gallery outside of McMinnville.  If there is some place special that you know about, let us know, it just adds to the experience. And happy 20th Birthday to the Coast Gems, great walk!

At the last minute Laurel drove and that was an experience in itself!  Picture this:  Mary Ann realizing that her purse is over the chair at the Taco Bell, and immediately we take a sharp, and I mean, sharp u-turn on a 4-lane highway.  Mary Rose and I about got strangled with the seat belts! Outside of that, the trip  is going well.  We stopped at Cape Perpetua and then we headed over to the covered bridge.  Dinner tonight was at the Drift Inn, and we decided to come up with a new idea...The Merrywalker Bump.  Today we gave it to 3 places, the Gingerbread Village, (where we all got shirts so we can come to the walk as the 4 Gingerbread Walkers), the second bump goes to the Drift Inn, and if you come tomorrow, you gotta get the pumpkin bread pudding, and the third bump goes to TACO BELL.  In Eugene, you get a senior coke for 50 cents, any size and refills.  You are all right, Taco Bell.

We said the same thing when we arrived "It was sunny when I left"!  But it did improve.  We had 15 walkers and six dogs, and the dogs left it.  Milo thought he was playing touch football and did a body slam on Mike and he went down, but thankfully he was on grass.  Geesh, that dog is like a horse!  
It's always fun when another club comes to visit and we have a chance to hear all of the gossip from the different clubs and generally just catch up on the news.
There was a little color out there today, but nothing like Sherwood's walk, but 3 Cities, 3 Parks is one of our favorites.  Ed pointed out something interesting that we need to include on the directions If you do the walk make sure you check out #36  Cross bridge (8K).  On pathway going up small hill there is a white line painted across the entire asphalt pathway -almost to the top of the little hill.  On the right side of the line is a small metal plate, which states this is theFlood Line of the 1996 Flood.Mike and Carolyn also took us on a little wooded path on the return so you aren't on Rivendale.  Humm, I'm thinking that we might just change that and take off some of the Boones Ferry, let's see...time to get a hold of Sandy Reid!Thanks to the Albany and Salem group for visiting and come again anytime, who knows, one of these days we might be the "Fit" walkers and walk a 10k instead of just being the Merry ones on the 5k.Tomorrow we are off to Yachats.  We will have pictures but not till Sunday.Anyone who wants to meet for dinner, we will be at the Drift Inn around 6.  We'll try and get reservations for at least 15, so come and join us.

Before I forget, two things I want to say right away.  Tomorrow's walk will be at 10 a.m. out of the Bridgeport REI.  The Abany group is coming up so anyone who would like to join us for the 10 or 5k, come along and we will see you there.  Number 2, Paula took some pictures of the walk in Longview, so now you can go down and view them off of the blog or look at them under our Pictures Tab.
Sherwood:  Great day and it will probably be one of the last days for the color.  We
had a good turnout, 18 for the 10k walkers and 11 for the 5k walkers.  We all met downtown for brunch at Fat Milo's (our DINER).  Milo (not the dog but the owner) had the tables all set up for us when we got there.  After he talked to me about doing it better next time.  What  he will offer is a limited menu, maybe 3 or 4 items, a drink, and he will just charge us one price and it will include gratuity.  So that might make it work out a heck of a lot better next time, but I doubt if we will wait that long, I just love those reds and vegetables!  (Note:  Joanne and Andrea loved the chocolate cupcake!)  
It was nice seeing people we hadn't seen in a long time!
See you tomorrow.

We heard there are a lot of eagles at Jackson Bottom, but we have seen nothing but furry caterpillars.  Everyone came layered today and with heavier jackets, but by the time we finished the walk, it was pretty nice out.  The sun is always a welcome site, especially this time of the year.  After the walk Mary Ann and I headed over to go over the 5k directions from yesterday's walk to make sure all of the glitches were fixed.  The 10k walk didn't have anything wrong, but the 5k had a spot we wanted to figure out and we decided on making it a bit different for next year.  In fact we will preview it this Wednesday to see if we did get all of the kinks out.  This time we'll take the 5k through the park and the wetlands and the leaves are still beautiful, so bring your cameras on Wednesday.  

It was the second load of canned goods that had to be taken to the Hope Diner in Sherwood and we  collected lots and lots of food.  Not only that, one of the nicest stories we heard today was from Laurel, our delivery person.  The lady from the Hope Diner asked if her if she was a member of that walking group that brought the blankets last year.  She said yes and they came from our blanket walk.  It turns out, that the volunteers from the Hope Diner wrapped all of the blankets that we donated and put them in with a basket of food for all of the people that were receiving food baskets last Christmas.  Well, I want to tell you, that made our day.  So ... make sure we have lots of blankets at the Christmas Walk.  Also used blankets for the Vets in Sherwood, they also loved the donations.  
The walk and weather was great.  We haven't had a chance to look over the start cards, but I think there were about 127 or so walkers out there today.  So, thanks for coming and weren't the soups good?  Howard, this was his first volkswalk, ended up sending me his blog and he'd like me to put in the link.  He works at OHSU and is on a committee trying to get employees more healthy and active. If you check out the web site, you'll notice, that's where we are getting a lot of our pictures too!  So here it is and definitely click it on.  Howard's Blog
We had an array of soups and sweets to greet us when we got back from the walk. From Salmon Chowder, to that wonderful Tomato Soup, to the apple pies and the pumpkin pie.  We had brownies, vegetable soups, cream of broccoli, peanut soup, it is really hard to keep track, but the recipes are all there for you to enjoy. A big thank you to all of you Merrywalkers that helped make this possible, and of course Odge Gibble, whose art gallery serves as our checkpoint. We are going to do this walk again on Wednesday, so if you want to bring more soups or canned goods, bring them along and we will see you at the YMCA at 10 a.m.  Hopefully the leaves will still be on the trees.

We marked the trail and our soups are being made.  All of the recipes are located on the right so feel free to print them out.  The above picture was taken yesterday - so it should give you a sample of what you will see.